The four-time world champion, who had his first run out with new team Ferrari on Saturday, was presented with a number of gifts by team principal Christian Horner and chief technical officer Adrian Newey, including a 50 percent scale model bull with his championship laurels engraved on the plinth.

The German will also receive one of his championship-winning cars, though not for a while yet because, as Horner joked: "We don't want it turning up in Maranello."

"The last six years have been incredible," Vettel explained to the hundreds of staff who assembled in the team’s race bays. "What we've achieved, the work that's gone in. So much passion, so much dedication. It will always stay in my heart.

“(A) big, big thank you to everyone. In the end we had the better car because we were the better team. Thank you really doesn't really describe enough what I feel."

"There's a lot of happy memories from this place that I'm holding onto. It's been a great journey and I've very grateful for what all of you did for me.”

Newey added: "Whenever Sebastian's been in the car he's been carrying all of our hopes, our ambitions. But we've always known that he's putting everything of himself into it as well. It's been a real privilege."

Vettel spent six full seasons with Red Bull, during which time he claimed four drivers’ crowns, 38 race wins, 27 other podium finishes and 44 pole positions.